Europe's hottest startup capitals: Tel Aviv

Ron Gura, 26, cofounder and CEO of The Gifts Project, is modest
about why so many of his fellow startups describe his company as
the country's Next Huge Thing. "What we do is simple, really: we
take something that a lot of people like to do, but which can be
hard to organise in the real world, and make it easy online."

The Gifts Project sells plug-ins, standalone sites and white-box
software that allow people to chip in to buy a present for a friend
online. A person chooses a gift and names the recipient, then
invites others to contribute. Givers can pay with a credit card or
use PayPal. Anyone can invite others to contribute and the gift can
be up(or down-) graded according to how much money is raised. Once
the money is in, the retail site sends the gift to the recipient
with a card.

Founded by Gura (opposite page, second right), his sister Maya
(left), Matan Bar (second left) and Erez Dickman (right) in
December 2009, the company raised $100,000 in seed investment, and
then $1m from Index and Gemini. It is making revenue from
analytics, with retailers accessing details of several customers
for every purchase. The software is also being used on US eBay
under the branding eBay GroupGifts, and Gura says the company is
going live on "a few UK brands soon", including
notonthehighstreet.com.

2. Face.com

62 Rothschild Boulevard

Face.com's founder and CEO,
Gil Hirsh, 37, doesn't look like someone who has raised more than
$5m of investment capital in less than three years. He prefers
faded jeans and an old checked shirt to a corporate suit, and his
offices, which he shares with the company's eight other employees
(three more are in New York), are in need of a coat of paint. But,
he says, "You spend the money where it makes a difference - on
servers and on hiring the top talent in the market."

Face.com's applications take facerecognition software a step
further than the traditional systems used in the security industry.
Whereas devices such as automated passport gates require the user
to look straight into the camera, Face.com's algorithms can tag a
face in a photo even when it is turned away, half hidden, smiling
inanely or wearing sunglasses - in other words, in the ways we
usually appear in our social snaps.

"Our world," he says, "is the world of friends finding photos of
friends. We are absolutely not in the security business." The
company's first consumer product, PhotoTagger, allows Facebook
users to automatically tag photos they upload. Running in the
cloud, it hazards (very good) guesses as to who is in a picture,
which the user then accepts or declines, giving the algorithm
further information on which to base its next guess. (Hirsh won't
comment on whether or not the company's technology is also behind
Facebook's auto-tagging feature, which launched in June and does a
similar thing.)

A second product, Photo Finder, currently in alpha, allows users
to search the internet for photos of themselves and friends. As a
kind of demo, Face.com has launched a celebrityonly version,
CelebrityFindr, that scans stars' images on Twitter, but the full
version will inevitably raise privacy concerns. Hirsh says the
company takes privacy very seriously ("This is not a stalkers'
tool," he says) but, with or without Photo Finder, it's hard to see
how anyone could protect themselves from being identified in a
third-party photo that is freely available online. Face.com started
as a project at one of Tel Aviv's GarageGeeks events in 2007. A
year later the company raised $200,000 from angel investors, and,
in 2009, another $5.3 million in two separate funding rounds led by
Israeli VC company Rhodium. Income comes from whitebox products
developed using its API, and from revenue-sharing deals. Hirsh
expects the company to turn profitable this year.

3.Wibiya

7 shalom Aleichem ramat hasharon

In May, one of Israel's tech giants, Conduit.com, bought Wibiya,
a 17-person Tel Aviv startup less than three years old, for $45
million. This gave Wibiya's
backers, including Primera Capital and Yossi Vardi, a very solid
return on their $2.6 million investment. Wibiya was set up in 2008
by Dror Ceder and Daniel Tal, both currently 30 and joint CEOs, and
Avi Smila, 37, CTO, to provide easy-to-install and easily
customisable apps for website owners to add to their sites.
Available through Wibiya's Application Marketplace, these include
ways of linking users to Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare;
contactform and photo gallery generators; analytics tools;
ecommerce systems; and online games.

"The idea," says Ceder, "is to provide you with an easy way to
enrich your users' experience so they stay longer on your site and
don't go off somewhere else."

By May this year, its 70-or-so apps were in use on 140,000
sites, with another 1,000 joining every day. "Our tools are seen by
about 200 million unique users per month," says Ceder.

The acquisition by Conduit will be a cultural shift for Wibiya
(currently based in Tal's parents' back garden) as well as scale,
but it will give the company's technology greater exposure.
Conduit, which is essentially in the same business, has 250
employees, apps on 260,000 website owners as customers and handles
2.14bn monthly interactions across its network. The first
initiative to come out of the new partnership will be Wibiya's
entry into the mobile market. Its first mobile apps were due to be
released as Wired went to press.

4. Onavo

Onavo, founded by Guy Rosen
and Roi Tiger in 2010, markets smartphone apps that cut travellers'
roaming fees by up to two thirds. It does this by compressing
inbound data before it is sent down to their phone. Onavo has so
far attracted $3m of VC funding, led by Sequoia Capital.
onavo.com

5. Billguard

Possibly the hottest startup in town, Billguard automatically scans
customers' online credit-card and utility bills for errors, hidden
fees, scams and fraud. Founded by Yaron Samid and Raphael Ouzan in
2010, and launched in May, it has already raised $3m, led by
Bessemer Venture Partners.

6. Snaptu

Snaptu launched in 2009 with
a service that turns internetenabled phones into smartphones by
running apps in the cloud. Bought by Facebook for a rumoured
$40$70m, it is currently developing Facebook's mobile presence.

7. Any.do

Tel Aviv's most secretive startup has raised $1m (including from
Eric Schmidt) and is expected to launch an app that will use voice
recognition and semantic analysis to translate commands into
actions. But no one will say when.

Soluto

Founded in 2007, since when it has raised $7.8m, Soluto uses crowdsourcing to
improve PC performance. A small client program uses anonymous
technical information gathered from other Soluto users to diagnose
problems. soluto.com

9. Boxee

Boxee markets a £200 rival to
the Apple TV that relays rich media from the internet and a user's
home collection to their television. To date the company has raised
$26.5 million in VC funding and has offices in Tel Aviv, New York
and London.

10. Taykey

Taykey is a
business-to-business provider that tracks internet trends in
real-time, giving advertisers more accurate data about their
customers' interests at any specific time. The latest funding round
raised $11m from several sources.

11.Rank Above

Based in Jerusalem and New York, Mayer Reich's Rank Above provides
large-scale search-engine optimisation for companies whose websites
extend to thousands or millions of pages. It is tight-lipped about
its funding and finances.

Where to meet

Israel is a small country -- it takes just 50 minutes to drive
from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv -- which allows startups and established
tech companies to choose office space on cost rather than location.
That said, there are clusters of high-tech industry in the town of
Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, and in Ramat Gan and Ramat Hachayal in
the city's northern suburbs.

But the real buzz can be found in the cafés of Tel Aviv's
Rothschild Boulevard. Stretching from Neve Tzedek in the south
roughly to midtown, Rothschild is an elegant, treelined avenue
popular with pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers enjoying the
city's almost unending sunshine. On the pedestrian walkway that
runs down its centre, a strip of hip, outdoor cafés is home to
creative types on their laptops, thanks in no little part to the
city's free, widespread Wi-Fi network.

Comments

South east? Man you got your directions all wrong. It's in WESTERN Asia geographically but culturally a part of Europe. I mean Cyprus is Europe and just off the coast of Israel.

me

Aug 17th 2011

Israel is most certainly not in South-East Asia. Just as a reminder, the crusaders walked there.

Shay

Aug 17th 2011

It's in the Middle East. WIRED should be careful not to do a seemingly conscious mistake. It's factually incorrect and in some ways immoral!!

Hasch

Aug 17th 2011

So what if they made an error? How is that immoral? Sounds like you've got a bad case of "sourgrapitis" to me... grow up.

Gil

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Gil

"grow up"?!?! It's factually incorrect. Or do we even skip material facts in the spirit of "growing up" now?Israel is basically on another continent!! This mistake is serious!! It's like saying that South Africa is a European country, or at least parts of it!! almost colonial if you ask me. Is the West Bank part of Europe too? It's an occupied territory. Israel seems to think it is part of it since it's building more settlements on it. Are the occupiers Europeans therefore the settlements are in Europe and the Occupied are not therefore they're Levantines or Middle Eastern!? That's how it seems according to WIRED's logic!Isn't that immoral?!

Hasch

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Hasch

"another continent" pfft. You do realize that the separation of Europe and Asia is artificial right? It's one land mass.I reckon that since Israel is part of the European league in football and basketball, and participates in the Eurovision, that should be good enough for Wired.

Shay

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Hasch

wow..what a great point!! If they participate in the Eurovision they must be a European country! which cities in Israel or under Israeli role are European cities?! Or lets list the cities from which people have participated in the Eurovision. Ridiculous!"the separation of Europe and Asia is artificial"..sorry?!! you lose me here!! Artificial meaning (decided by people for hundreds of years now)? Defending Israel has become very difficult that people resort to absurdities now.

Hasch

Aug 19th 2011

No visit to Tel Aviv would be complete without a day trip to Gaza to see the high- tech automated machine guns that slaughter kids collecting rubble to rebuild houses destroyed by equally high-tech weaponry in the massacres. Israeli technology is great.....at killing.

Charles

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Charles

And you are great... at being a dick.

Klaus

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Charles

Yep. I've been in Gaza. So, my visit is complete, right?So, Charles, you're a dick and don't know a shit about it.

Emiliano

Nov 20th 2011

Why Tel Aviv is in this list? Israel is not in Europe, neither Tel Aviv is an european capital.

João Pestana

Aug 17th 2011

A day visit to Gaza is a must; you can see the high- tech automated machine guns which kill kids trying to collect rubble to rebuild houses destroyed by Israel in the invasion.Israeli technology is truly wonderful.

Charles

Aug 17th 2011

Tel Aviv - so civilised, so cosmopolitan, so tolerant yet such a short distance from blockaded Gaza where there is a shortage of clean safe water and the sewage infrastructure is collapsing. Gaza where people are still smuggling food - yes food - and other essentials through unsafe hand made tunnels. And where hearing aid batteries and even braille paper have been restricted by Israel's blockade as well as 'dangerous' items like sanitary towels and hair conditioner.

Janet Green

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Janet Green

Charles and the others, here is a little lesson in reality and away from disinformation: Gaza does not belong to Israel anymore. It has been de-occupied. The "high tech machine guns" are there for defense, against terrorist whose only goal it is to destroy Israel.

Linda

Aug 18th 2011

Tel Aviv - so civilised, so cosmopolitan, so tolerant yet such a short distance from blockaded Gaza where there is a shortage of clean safe water and the sewage infrastructure is collapsing. Gaza where people are still smuggling food - yes food - and other essentials through unsafe hand made tunnels. And where hearing aid batteries and even braille paper have been restricted by Israel's blockade as well as 'dangerous' items like sanitary towels and hair conditioner.

Janet Green

Aug 17th 2011

If you like countries who pride themselves on Apartheid, Racism, the imprisonment of children, and the killing of a nation, then support Tel Aviv. However, if you have a conscience and dream of living in a united world free of racism and poverty, then boycott Israel. The world did it for South Africa to be free, and now it's time for Palestine to be free.

Ibrahim Muhammed

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Ibrahim Muhammed

So many lies and falsh Arab propeganda. Look for "Israel Palestinian Conflict: The Truth About the West Bank" on YOUTUBE

Yaron

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Ibrahim Muhammed

And if you like countries where the violence is on the streets and you never know when you're going to be kidnapped and beheaded because you don't believe in allah (purposly written in lower-case), where women are kept as the lowest forms of the society, where people like to invade the good land of their neighbour and not doing anything to help themselves to get their land to be fertile, then support the countries living in ancient times like Palestine. Stop spreading lies. It's 21st centrury, muslims should grow up. That includes you.

Tim

Aug 18th 2011

If you like countries who pride themselves on Apartheid, Racism, the imprisonment of children, and the killing of a nation, then support Tel Aviv. However, if you have a conscience and dream of living in a united world free of racism and poverty, then boycott Israel. The world did it for South Africa to be free, and now it's time for Palestine to be free.

Ibrahim Muhammed

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Ibrahim Muhammed

Fanaticism and hatred have no place on this webpage, Ibrahim Muhammed. It is pretty pathetic when you cannot bear any success by Israelis and must sully the page with your effusions. As for your "Palestine," when did it exist? Presumably there was an Arab state called "Palestine" that had to exist for one to claim that it is now "occupied." There never was such a state. It can only come to be through peace negotiations with Israel, now that Jordan and Egypt have given up their claims to the West Bank and Gaza. And the Palestinian leaders have done all they could to avoid any such negotiations or to sink them when they are forced into them, as at Camp David in 2000. When Egypt and Jordan occupied those territories, there was no protest at their occupying "Palestine" and no calls for boycotting them by Palestinians, Muslims or antisemites, despite the fact that they treated the local Arabs they ruled much worse than Israel treats its Arab citizens. There was no democracy for them, no political parties allowed, no education to speak of, etc., etc. The protesters so indignant at Israel's continued existence and success similarly ignore right now the far worse treatment of "Palestinian refugees" in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and even in the Palestinian Authority territories, where "Palestinian refugees" are still denied the right to leave their camps, find employment, or live normal lives.As for racism, Israel extends full civil rights and equal laws, etc., to its Arab citizens, but the Palestinians demand an ethnic cleansing of all Jewish settlements from their proposed state of Palestine, and even deny that there is any Jewish religious holy shrines anywhere in the Holy Land, so there can be no protection even of Jewish holy sites under a Palestinian jurisdiction.Enough of these diversions, Mr. Muhammed. I suggest that the real problem is not Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, but the Muslim refusal to accept any non-Muslim state in the Middle East, especially if it is a tolerant Western liberal democracy so different from any Arab state in the region. That is why even in the United Nations Israel has been forced out of the Middle East grouping and has joined in the European grouping, whose democratic and liberal values are in any case its own.

Tom Batch

Aug 22nd 2011

I encourage you to boycott Israel. That way you'll miss out on the great investments and fall behind the times.

Mike Hochman

Aug 17th 2011

Much as I admire the work ethic of Tel Aviv''s start ups, your geography is rusty. Israel is no more in Europe than Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

Joe Millis

Aug 17th 2011

Israel is indeed NOT in Europe although it should be. Israel should be relocated to Europe probably Germany who was responsible for the mass immigration of European Jews to the Arab land of Palestine.

Hussein

Aug 17th 2011

In reply to Hussein

The responsibles to send them to Palestine were UK and US , not Germany. And there were two possible destinys one was Palestine and the other one was in South America , but you know they had to follow their fantasy book and went for Palestine and the world is paying for it.

ghostDancer

Aug 18th 2011

In reply to Hussein

You should read some history . Jews always lived in Israel espeacilly in the north Tiberia Zafad Gallile Jerusalem they began to immigrat in the 19 century which at that time Israel or palestine was ruled by hte Ottoman do you mean that they were responsible as well. What about jews form arab countries about 800,00 of them should we relocate them in the countires which ethnicly clenased them. Did yo know htat jews were the Majority in Jerusalme in the middle of the 19th century

alexa

Aug 18th 2011

Curious why you're reporting on Wibiya and Snaptu which are no longer startups (or even companies).. Otherwise, pretty nice report on the Israeli scene. Despite the detractors and geography-nerds, Israeli is a vibrant tech community, 4-5hrs flight from London with only 2hrs time difference, and super talented dev resources, totally worth reporting from what Wired is trying to achieve in this article.